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Winifred Spearing was born in an age well before my time. When I asked for further information about her birth circumstances, it was possible that the RootsChat experts had come across similar stories to those of Winifred's mother, Bessie. I am an optimistic rather than pessimistic person. So I give Bessie the benefit of the doubt and view her as a reliable and hard working domestic employee. Consequently, the St. Loe Strachey family would have ensured that Bessie was well cared for during the birth of her daughter and for the subsequent safe return of mother and baby to Somerset.

I am seeking more information on the life of Bessie (baptised as Bessy) Look, born in 1874 in the Frome area of Somerset. Also some information about her daughter, Winifred May Spearing, who, after her marriage to Arthur Henry Locke, lived in Somerset. I have details of Winifred's life as a teenager but I am particularly interested in the circumstances of her birth which do not follow the same pattern as that of her siblings. Winifred was born on 31 March 1903 in the district of Chelsea, sub-district Chelsea South. It is likely that, about the time of her birth, her mother, Bessie, was living in London at 27 Pont Street, Chelsea. Bessie was a ladies maid to the wife of John St. Loe Strachey, a Newspaper Proprietor (of the Spectator, father of John Strachey MP). From census records Bessy was living there in 1901. As far as I can ascertain, soon after Winifred's birth, both mother and baby returned to Somerset. 
It looks, suspiciously, that someone in the household of the Strachey family, or living nearby, was Winifred's father. (This in contrast to her siblings whose father was William James Spearing.) Hence the support for Winifred's mother during her birth. Unlikely to be proven but a closer knowledge of the birth circumstances is of interest to me.
Thank you.

Thanks for your help.
LockeLad

I would like to know more about Frank Penny (born 11 October 1899 in Kensington) who died aged 70 in 1969 in Kensington. I have a family letter from him to his sister Lucy Ann Locke (nee Penny) dated 9th November 1955. I have posted other information about his siblings elsewhere on RootsChat
I am interested as to where he was living, from UK census records, between 1955 until his death in 1969.
Thanks for any help.
LockeLad

Frank's letter of 9/11/1955 to his sister Lucy Locke nee Penny, my grandmother, makes no mention of  being in Canada. In view of his poor heath after the war it seems unlikely.
Other related Penny family members did emigrate to Canada although I have no record of a Frank Penny.